The Grass Valley Animal Shelter on Freeman Lane provides “inadequate health and welfare practices” for animals housed there, the Nevada County civil grand jury concluded in a report released Wednesday.
A high rate of euthanasia, lack of a systematic spay-and-neuter system, lack of full accountability in their spay-and-neuter fee deposit program and incomplete record keeping practices were pointed out in the report called “Missed Opportunities.”
The report’s findings run counter to what Grass Valley Animal Control says on its Web site: “Our adoption rate is phenomenal, being over 90 percent.”
The Grass Valley Police Department runs the shelter.
“We’ve just received the grand jury review, and we appreciate somebody from the outside looking at our organization, and we’ll review their findings, but we have a great shelter and great employees,” Police Chief John Foster said.
The report said the Grass Valley shelter has a 24 percent euthanasia rate, with 85 cats and 13 dogs put to death out of 416 animals brought there in 2007 and 2008.
“This is in contrast to the Nevada County shelter euthanasia rate (3.1 percent) and the Truckee shelter rate (1.7 percent) for the same period,” the report said.
Grand jury members worked with department officials for about nine months gathering the information, police Capt. Rex Marks said.
The report’s findings about the euthanasia rate “would not be accurate based on my recollection” of the information provided to the grand jury, Marks added.
A copy of the report was delivered in advance to City Hall, but had not been forwarded to the department before it was made public, sources said.
The department will respond to the report in writing as required, department spokesman Marks said. A response is required by Sept. 14, but the jury’s findings are not legally binding and the jury has no enforcement powers.
‘Missing out’ on volunteer help
The report said the shelters shortcomings stood out when the grand jury compared it to Nevada County and Truckee animal operations.
Truckee and the county also use volunteers, while Grass Valley has missed out “on the potential benefit of volunteers” to help out, the grand jury concluded.
Hours and public access to the animals are limited to 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on weekdays, the report said, and animals “are not vaccinated and not generally quarantined upon entry to the shelter,” the report said.
Spay-and-neuter law coming
Grass Valley does not spay and neuter animals before adoption. The grand jury recommended the city start doing so to reduce the population of unwanted animals.
The city will have to spay and neuter animals before adoption by law when the county reaches 100,000 people, the report said. The county has 99,186 residents, the report said.
The grand jury also recommended the shelter look at using volunteers, provide more exercise and better areas for the animals and increase its hours of service. The grand jury also said the shelter should stop boarding animals in competition with the private sector.
Intake and disposition records of animals were also not complete and less then half the animals taken in could be tracked, the grand jury said. The records system should be shored up and a fee study done as well, the grand jury recommended.
To contact Senior Staff Writer Dave Moller, e-mail dmoller@theunion.com or call 477-4237. To contact City Editor Trina Kleist, e-mail tkleist@theunion.com or call 477-4237.
Related
* Grand jury report
http://www.theunion.com/article/20090514/NEWS/905149992/1053
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